How Did The Colonist Respond To The Call For Independence Dbq

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The independence of America in the mid-1700s and the call for revolution by colonist was because of the overwhelming tyranny of the British government and monarchy, which created lines that stopped colonist from expanding in the Americans, formed tax reforms that the colonist widely disagreed with, and made attempts to corral the colonist with military force and slave related economic policies that harmed the colonist. The goal for the British government was to beat the colonist into submission, and to have them obey the monarchy. These three reasons will do quite the opposite, causing the colonist to become angry and rebellious, which then slowly boils over into the call for independence. During the years of 1754-1763 the British and French …show more content…

The British government had to find a way to pay their war debt off, so they turned to the colonies of America. They began to tax the colonies very steeply, because the British government felt as the colonies must play their part in helping pay off the debt. The colonies opposed this idea, believing that because they did not start the war, and did not participate in all of the war that scaled the globe, they should not have to pay steep taxes to pay off the debt. This is where the idea of “No taxation without representation.” ,said by Reverend Jonathan Mayhew, began, because the colonist had no representation in parliament in order to oppose these tax acts. One act the British government passed was the Stamp Act which was passed in 1765, the stamp act used stamps on pieces of paper that came with products in order to show that the colonist had paid their taxes, this act came very sudden and shocked the colonist and they felt very negatively about this act because they felt if infringed on their liberties. The act birthed the Sons of Liberty, widely associated with Samuel Adams, this group began using violence and threats in order to scare tax collectors throughout the colonies. Popular methods of scare tactics include tarring and feathering tax collectors and hanging effigies of tax collectors in trees, as depicted by the Boston Gazette, a popular newspaper at the time, on the August …show more content…

This leads to the passing of the Coercive Act, which will put the city of Boston under martial law. The city will be flooded with troops and they will be quartered in colonist homes. This will lead to increased tensions between the British troops and colonist, and soon protest breakout all throughout the city. One of the most prominent events that lead to the call for independence is the Boston Massacre, “QUOTE FROM TEXTBOOK”. This event will be dramatized by local newspapers and soon word of the event will spread throughout the colonies. The news will outrage the colonist and they will shift from not wanting to go to war, but simply wanting things to go back to normal, to calling for all out rebellion. The colonist will begin to meet in secret and begin plotting to recapture cities occupied by British troops. Soon colonies begin forming militias and loyalist begin having widespread paranoia. This is heightened after the battle of Lexington and Concord, because many loyalist feel that after this all of the colonies will soon be participating in the rebellion. This causes many loyalist officials to begin taking steps to corral their colonies. In the southern part of America, where slavery and plantations were prominent, officials began to offer freedom to slaves owned by rebellious colonist. They state that if a slave is owned by a pro

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